Central Highlands halt licensing forest conversion projects

Dak
Lak (VNA) – The Central Highlands provinces have halted licensing projects
involving the use of natural forests for other land needs, particularly for industrial
tree plantations, and those likely to overexploit forest products in converted
forest areas.

The
moves were part of efforts to abide by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s
decision at a conference in 2016 to seek solutions to sustainable forest
recovery in the region in response to climate change from 2016-2020.

According
to the Central Highlands Steering Committee, Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak
Nong and Lam Dong provinces have reviewed 565 projects covering the total
forest area of more than 214,000 hectares and assessed their results with the
focus on those converting forest use into planting rubber and other industrial
trees.

The
provinces have revoked the entire or part of dozens of delayed projects and those
enabling forest encroachments, as well as illegal logging and occupation of
forest while individuals and organisations responsible for poor governance of
forest and forestland have been strictly punished.

It
was estimated that there were 220 projects involving conversion of forest into
rubber plantations, spreading across an area of about 115,000 hectares,
including over 93,500 hectares of poor natural forest. Of these areas, about
73,130 hectares of rubber have been planted; nearly 9,700 hectares, or 13.2
percent, of which have poorly developed or died.

The
steering committee has pointed out many shortcomings in forest management of
the Central Highlands provinces in the past that led to large forest loss or
ineffective forest conversion projects.

The
committee has asked the government and competent state bodies to study a plan
to provide ethnic minority households who had been misusing forest and
forestlands for years with new lands for farming, and to properly handle
ineffective projects in a bid to avoid economic loss for both enterprises and
the provinces.

It
has also ordered the five provinces to replant forests in areas of
poorly-developed rubber.-VNA